Grogan has no worries after finishing 2nd

Lake sports

September 30, 2009|By Joe Williams, Sentinel Staff Writer

CLERMONT -- Kevin Grogan didn't win the 25th annual Florida Challenge Triathlon at Clermont Waterfront Park Sunday. That, in itself, is an oddity. Grogan has had quite a dominating triathlon season, sweeping all three Clermont races in the Central Florida Triathlon Series during the summer.

He followed that up with the championship in the OUC Downtown Orlando Triathlon in September.

But on Sunday all Grogan, 36, could manage was a second-place finish.

The race, a half-Ironman distance with a 1.2-mile swim, 56-mile bicycle and 13.1-mile run, was a little out of Grogan's league. A business owner and a family man, Grogan is unable to put in the adequate amount of training time to be in peak form for a race that distance.

"Two-thirds of the way through the bike, I was saying to myself, this isn't a sprint," Grogan said. "I went out hard the first 20 miles and was with [fourth-place finisher] Ed Donner before I backed off a little. You can't go out like this in a distance race."

Still, it was quite a respectable showing for Grogan, who finished in 4 hours, 46 minutes, 6 seconds, which was about 20 minutes behind the man who won the race: Clermont's Zach Ruble, 27, 9 years youger than Grogan and sometimes his training partner. Ruble finished in 4:26:49, just before the first of several rain storms moved through Clermont during Sunday afternoon.

Grogan was a big supporter of Ruble's during the race.

"I can't say enough good things about him," Grogan said. "He lives the dream. He is incredible. Last year at Ironman Florida, he ran a sub 3-hour marathon. There are not a lot of guys who can run like that after getting off of the bike after riding 112 miles. He is just phenomenal."

Heather Butcher, 37, of North Port was the winner of the women's race Sunday, finishing in a time of 5:24:10, coming in just about 12 minutes ahead of second-place Erin Troy, 27, of Maitland (5:36:13). Troy was closely followed by Jan Burger, 44, of Valrico (5:38:25).

For Ruble, the race on Sunday was all part of his training for this year's Florida Ironman race which will be held in Panama City on Nov. 7.

Ruble didn't back off on his training to compete in the Florida Challenge -- which is nicknamed "The Intimidator" because of the challenging course. He treated the race just like another day of training -- and he had a good workout.

"This is one of the hardest half-Ironman's I have ever done with the heat, the humidity and the hills," Ruble said.

Said Grogan: "I think we hit every hill there is to hit in Clermont. And then we had to deal with the wind in our face [during the bicycle] from about mile 40. It was really difficult."

Ruble came out of the swim in Lake Minneola in second place, but put the rest of the field well behind him during the first 40 miles of the bicycle leg. He was never really threatened after that.

Ruble said his object wasn't necessarily to win the race, but he wanted to see where he was in his training for Ironman Florida six weeks later. After finishing the race, Ruble was happy with how his body had responded to the race.

Ruble, who moved to Clermont from Monroeville, Ind., for his triathlon training, has competed in four half-Ironman distance triathlons and two full Ironman distance triathlons this season. His best finish was a second place at The Rockman half-Ironman in Illinois.

Although he finished second, Grogan was not disappointed with his performance, or with his season, which still includes two races.

"For sure, I have been able to put together some good races this season," Grogan said. "The first race in the [Central Florida Triathlon] series in June, where I beat [Bill] Picciano and [Nic] Tautiva, really gave me a lot of confidence. Really in that race, four of the five guys I had to beat had beaten me in the past.